"American workers are wasting more than twice the time Human Resource managers expect. Daily average in fact now more than 2 hours per day - per employee." -by: Dan Malachowski, Salary.com
For many American workers today, time's a wastin' - literally. According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. As a matter of practice, companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining employee pay. However, the America Online / Salary.com survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed.
State of Florida - 2.2 hrs. - $44.4 billion
WASTE MANAGEMENT
The biggest distraction for respondents? Personal Internet use. 44.7% of the more than 10,000 people polled cited web surfing as their #1 distraction at work. Socializing with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal phone calls were the other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace.
| Top 10 Time Wasting Activities | % |
| 1 Surfing Internet (personal use) | 44.7 |
| 2 Socializing with co-workers | 23.4 |
| 3 Conducting personal business | 6.8 |
| 4 Spacing out | 3.9 |
| 5 Running errands off-premises | 3.1 |
| 6 Making personal phone calls | 2.3 |
| 7 Applying for other jobs | 1.3 |
| 8 Planning personal events | 1 |
| 9 Arriving late / Leaving early | 1 |
| 10 Other | 12.5 |
Employees say they're not always to blame for this wasted time, however. 23.4% said they wasted time at work because they feel as if they are underpaid.
| Top Time Wasting Excuses | % |
| 1 Don't have enough work to do | 33.2 |
| 2 Underpaid for amount of work | 23.4 |
| 3 Co-workers distract me | 14.7 |
| 4 Not enough after-work time | 12 |
| 5 Other | 16.7 |
CATS VS. MICE
Are workers really expected to work 8 hours per day? According to a Salary.com follow-up survey of Human Resource managers, companies assume that employees will waste 0.94 hours per day. They take this into account when they do their compensation planning. However, those managers privately suspect that employees waste 1.6 hours per day. In fact, employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours per day.
WHO WASTES THE MOST TIME?
- Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about the same amount of time per day. This, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women wasted more time at work than men.
- Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following statistics show, the older people are, the less time they waste at work:
| Year of Birth | Time Wasted Per Day |
| 1930-1949 | 0.50 Hours |
| 1950-1959 | 0.68 Hours |
| 1960-1969 | 1.19 Hours |
| 1970-1979 | 1.61 Hours |
| 1980-1985 | 1.95 Hours |
Salary Dollars Wasted column reports the total value of all salary dollars actually paid by employers, for which work was expected but not actually performed by employees.
The calculation assumes that employers expect, and therefore allocate no salary dollars for, the first 0.94 hours of wasted time per employee. Calculations also assume a standard five-day workweek consisting of 8 hours per day, and a U.S. average salary of $43,795.33 per year (Q1 2010). Census data for non-farm workers employed in each state (Q1 2010) was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Sources: Dan Malachowski, Salary.com / Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. / Scripps Howard News / National Association of Convenience Stores / Rutgers University / U.S. Department of Justice.